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Dec. 15th, 2017 11:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pearwaldorfI have seen a Star War!
Things I expected to happen did, just not in the way that I expected. I was absolutely delighted to hear Luke talk about how the legacy of the Jedi is failure, and how it was an awful fucking religion and needed to be destroyed. Thank u for that, Rian. I'm also amused that some of the headcanons I've written down (like Luke cutting himself off from the Force) were also things Rian thought about.
I really loved that this movie was a meditation on legacy and legends and the sorts of things and ideas we leave behind. From the trailers, I expected a Luke that was gun shy and deeply wary of training another student as powerful as Kylo Ren, but not one who had literally cut himself off from the Force and expected to die on the island. The only time I really felt like we got a glimpse of the old Luke was when he was talking to Artoo. His voice changed and everything and he sounded young again. (I feel like there's a story where Artoo thinks back about his adventures with the Skywalkers, but especially Luke, but it would make me so sad to write.) I loved the shot of him and Yoda watching the old tree burn with the ancient Jedi texts inside it.
Domhnall Gleeson was styled so perfectly for this movie. In that he looks like mayo on Miracle Whip beaten with all the terrible genes that white colonialism has to offer. Like, he was fucking repulsive. It was amazing. Also, he and Kylo definitely fucking hate each other even more than in TFA so I hope this puts the Kylux to rest.
I wanted to like the bits with the Resistance fleet, but they felt not quite right. I don't think Rian really figured out what to do with Poe, so basically he blusters and is all macho and stupid. I also felt Holdo's character was kind of underwritten. It was not clear from the movie what her connection with Leia was until the very end, and god why didn't she just fucking tell Poe what she was doing before he tried to incite a mutiny? I did love how Holdo dealt with him though, and I would def read some fic.
I'm so glad that Rey isn't a Skywalker or Kenobi or Palpatine. They've fucked up the world enough. Greatness can come from anywhere, even a cast-off child left on Jakku. I feel like I should have more to say about her time on the island, or about how she comes into her destiny, but it was cool and I am satisfied by it.
I was concerned based on Rian's comments that he would end up woobying Kylo Ren or making him sympathetic in a bad way, but I was glad to see his character becomes more understandable without also making clear he chose to do the things he does. I thought maybe he had a chance when he didn't blow up the cruiser Leia was on. Rey extended him multiple opportunities to pull back from the dark side. Luke gave him another chance. But he refused all of them, and that is what makes him irredeemable. (I haven't rewatched TFA in a while, but in this movie he looks so much more child-like than in the other one. It's just something about the softness of his face.)
I'm also delighted with the weird Force bond between Rey and Kylo. It's very fanfic-y in a great way. I hope they keep on popping into each other's heads at inopportune times and come to a grudging understanding of each other. Also, now I finally have a canonical basis for the Reylo. I still don't like it, but at least there's something not icky to work with. The back to back fighting taking on the guards was pretty bitchin'. I liked that a lot.
I am grumpy that Finn was more or less sidelined for this movie. They better give him more to do for the next one.
ROSE. I adore Rose so much. Please give me all the fic. I ship her with everybody. I tried to figure out a sedoretu but I don't like Poe/Rey so fuck it, everybody loves everybody else.
There was some really weirdly dissonant humor throughout the movie. It felt weirdly inappropriate and shoehorned in for whatever reason. Like, the thing with Hux was goddamn hilarious (and a good companion to "Who goes first?"), but combine that with the sad Porg and Chewie sequence and a whole bunch of other stuff that I can't remember but just felt real weird.
I love that the closing scene circled back to the kids on Canto Bight. That is where the spark of hope lives, just waiting to be ignited into a flame.
Things I expected to happen did, just not in the way that I expected. I was absolutely delighted to hear Luke talk about how the legacy of the Jedi is failure, and how it was an awful fucking religion and needed to be destroyed. Thank u for that, Rian. I'm also amused that some of the headcanons I've written down (like Luke cutting himself off from the Force) were also things Rian thought about.
I really loved that this movie was a meditation on legacy and legends and the sorts of things and ideas we leave behind. From the trailers, I expected a Luke that was gun shy and deeply wary of training another student as powerful as Kylo Ren, but not one who had literally cut himself off from the Force and expected to die on the island. The only time I really felt like we got a glimpse of the old Luke was when he was talking to Artoo. His voice changed and everything and he sounded young again. (I feel like there's a story where Artoo thinks back about his adventures with the Skywalkers, but especially Luke, but it would make me so sad to write.) I loved the shot of him and Yoda watching the old tree burn with the ancient Jedi texts inside it.
Domhnall Gleeson was styled so perfectly for this movie. In that he looks like mayo on Miracle Whip beaten with all the terrible genes that white colonialism has to offer. Like, he was fucking repulsive. It was amazing. Also, he and Kylo definitely fucking hate each other even more than in TFA so I hope this puts the Kylux to rest.
I wanted to like the bits with the Resistance fleet, but they felt not quite right. I don't think Rian really figured out what to do with Poe, so basically he blusters and is all macho and stupid. I also felt Holdo's character was kind of underwritten. It was not clear from the movie what her connection with Leia was until the very end, and god why didn't she just fucking tell Poe what she was doing before he tried to incite a mutiny? I did love how Holdo dealt with him though, and I would def read some fic.
I'm so glad that Rey isn't a Skywalker or Kenobi or Palpatine. They've fucked up the world enough. Greatness can come from anywhere, even a cast-off child left on Jakku. I feel like I should have more to say about her time on the island, or about how she comes into her destiny, but it was cool and I am satisfied by it.
I was concerned based on Rian's comments that he would end up woobying Kylo Ren or making him sympathetic in a bad way, but I was glad to see his character becomes more understandable without also making clear he chose to do the things he does. I thought maybe he had a chance when he didn't blow up the cruiser Leia was on. Rey extended him multiple opportunities to pull back from the dark side. Luke gave him another chance. But he refused all of them, and that is what makes him irredeemable. (I haven't rewatched TFA in a while, but in this movie he looks so much more child-like than in the other one. It's just something about the softness of his face.)
I'm also delighted with the weird Force bond between Rey and Kylo. It's very fanfic-y in a great way. I hope they keep on popping into each other's heads at inopportune times and come to a grudging understanding of each other. Also, now I finally have a canonical basis for the Reylo. I still don't like it, but at least there's something not icky to work with. The back to back fighting taking on the guards was pretty bitchin'. I liked that a lot.
I am grumpy that Finn was more or less sidelined for this movie. They better give him more to do for the next one.
ROSE. I adore Rose so much. Please give me all the fic. I ship her with everybody. I tried to figure out a sedoretu but I don't like Poe/Rey so fuck it, everybody loves everybody else.
There was some really weirdly dissonant humor throughout the movie. It felt weirdly inappropriate and shoehorned in for whatever reason. Like, the thing with Hux was goddamn hilarious (and a good companion to "Who goes first?"), but combine that with the sad Porg and Chewie sequence and a whole bunch of other stuff that I can't remember but just felt real weird.
I love that the closing scene circled back to the kids on Canto Bight. That is where the spark of hope lives, just waiting to be ignited into a flame.
no subject
Date: 2017-12-16 11:05 pm (UTC)This.
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Date: 2017-12-17 04:24 am (UTC)I'll admit, I actually liked that part, but I was looking at it as a purposeful indictment of so-called "nice guys" who suddenly turn into assholes when they're asked to defer to a woman. I fully admit that there's a good chance it wasn't intentional, but from the perspective of someone who's worked with plenty of people who've acted that exact same way, it felt pretty good to see someone being shot down onscreen for that kind of behavior.
...and god why didn't she just fucking tell Poe what she was doing before he tried to incite a mutiny?
Because he'd just proven that he couldn't be trusted to follow orders and been demoted (even if it probably would have only been temporary, as a slap on the wrist, if everything hadn't happened the way it did) because of it? That was my assumption, at least. I saw it as something that was on a need-to-know basis, and she assumed that he wasn't high enough in the chain of command to be trusted with that information based on his recent actions.
I'm so glad that Rey isn't a Skywalker or Kenobi or Palpatine.
Ditto. They've screwed up the universe enough. I really want to see everything be saved by someone who's not anyone "special."
But he refused all of them, and that is what makes him irredeemable.
Exactly. I really liked that they made his fall be a lot less cut-and-dry, with Luke screwing up in a big way that was very believable for the character. But then, when Kylo Ren had the chance to pull back and try to redeem himself, he basically laughed at the idea and made it clear that - no matter what events led to his fall in the first place - he'd fully embraced it at that point.
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Date: 2017-12-19 08:48 pm (UTC)(This actually lead to a weird theory about Episode VI. The big confrontation on the Death Star is the only major event that one of those two 'droids is NOT present for. So, technically, everything that happened in the Emperor's throne room is from an unreliable narrator. This could be used as evidence to the now-deprecated "Luke is Snoke" theory.)
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Date: 2017-12-26 10:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-12-26 10:45 pm (UTC)A lot of the humor was very... Disney? Like Finn in the leaky suit, Chewie and the sad porg. Which is not to say there weren't silly or slapsticky bits in the OT, but they seemed way more understated. Maybe it will be less weird as it ages.